Israel bond ratings raised to ‘A1′ from ‘A2′ – Moody’s
04.18.08

Moody’s Investors Service upgraded Israel’s key ratings, saying the country has proved resilient in the face of repeated economic and political shocks.

It also cited the country’s ‘firmly established fiscal discipline and its ongoing financial and political support from the United States and the Jewish diaspora’.

The government foreign and local currency bond ratings have been upgraded to ‘A1′ from ‘A2′, and the foreign currency ceiling for bank deposits has been upgraded to ‘A1′ from ‘A2′ as well. All other sovereign ratings have been affirmed, including the ‘Aa1′ country ceiling for long-term foreign currency debt.
http://www.forbes.com/markets/…..05383.html

Court Sets Deadline for White House Answers on Missing E-mail

Order Could Force White House to Save Individual Workstation Files; Action Comes in Response to Archive Motion

Responding to the National Security Archive’s motion in the pending White House e-mail lawsuit, Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola of the U.S. District Court today ordered the White House to provide “precise information” about the users of the e-mail system from 2003 to 2005 and how many of their hard drives still survive today.

Citing the “lack of precision” in White House statements and its changing story about which backup tapes have been preserved, Magistrate Judge Facciola also ordered the White House to “resolve any ambiguities … once and for all” and identify the specific dates between March 2003 and October 2003 for which no backup tape exists.

The magistrate judge also recommended that District Judge Henry H. Kennedy issue a series of orders that would compel the White House to search the individual workstations of White House staff, preserve the personal folders (.PST files in the Microsoft environment) where e-mail may have been stored, and secure any portable or external media that may contain e-mail from March 2003 to October 2005. Referring to the White House position that it has no formal program for distributing “hard or external drives, CDs, DVDs, jump, zip, hard, or floppy disks,” Magistrate Judge Facciola commented “[o]ne would hope that the components have filled the void left by [Office of Chief Information Officer] by implementing policies and procedures to “track and manage” the removal and/or transfer of [Executive Office of the President] data…”

But I suspect one of W’s BFF will be most upset by this; The Saudi Arabian King who nearly broke off relations with the US during the summer of 2001 when he was still Crown Prince. Under pressure from his own subjects, who were watching on TV the Israeli Military response to the second Intifada, and demanding a response from the Saudi Royal Family, Bandar Bush visited W in Crawford in that uneventful August of 2001, complete with tapes of the IDF shooting children, and a scrap-book of additional pictures, and a letter from the Crown Prince drawing some lines in the sand, and extracted a response to the Crown Prince’s letter. One aspect of the response was Bush’s later Rose Garden statement favoring a Two State solution — with the Rose Garden Statement coming after the 9/11 attack. The Rose Garden Statement is important because it really is the first time an American Principle has been clear on this matter — and it was in response to the Saudi threat delivered by Bandar. One of the threats was the immediate removal of all American Personnel, Civilian and Military from Saudi Arabia.

For a good footnoted version of the backroom politics that transpired in the late summer, early fall of 2001, and then into 2002 — check out Chapter 7 in Mearsheimer & Walt’s book, “The Israel Lobby” — Chapter 7 being “The Lobby Versus the Palestinians.” By the way, Tenet also has a partial version of this story.

I assume that one reason the Joint Committee Intelligence Report on 9/11 had 28 pages censored out, was not only because it traced the finance behind 9/11 back to Saudi sources, but because it probably dealt with the profoundly conflicted policy clearly obvious to the players, that the US had adopted. On one hand, respond to Saudi threats by putting the US in support of the Two State Solution, (and everyone knows that does not involve Settler’s taking over West Bank Lands,) and in direct conflict, the now revealed Bush letter to Sharon that says the exact opposite. I can see the Saudi’s making the sands of the desert fly the way a Siberian Husky does when it is of a mind to bury something. In the past, I assume they knew that secretly Bush did something like that, (they are no strangers to deception), but they cannot tolerate it being public knowledge. Given that the BBC last night was running stories about the situation in Gaza, where the Israeli’s have not permitted the delivery of fuel for the electrical system, and the fresh water is nearly off, and the sewage is not being pumped, and is running in the streets, and the UN has decided to remove personnel because they can no longer deliver services, which means cutting about 600,000 off from their food supply, I would not be at all surprised if we don’t see a fairly nasty reaction in short order. I suspect some of the revelations are part of a build up to whatever is contemplated.

http://forum.atimes.com/post.a…..FORUM_ID=8

“flaccid”

could be interesting at political events…

They can both just sport their Viva Viagra t-shirts…